The City Council is moving forward with several steps in the process to find a replacement for former City Manager Thomas Ambrosino.
Last week, the council held a subcommittee meeting to address several of the issues surrounding Ambrosino’s departure, as well as for finding a replacement for clerk to the council Paul Casino. Casino officially retired from his position in December, but is working on a part-time/consultant basis to help the council until they find his replacement.
At the subcommittee meeting, the council discussed appointing Deputy City Manager Ned Keefe the acting City Manager.
However, the motion to appoint Keefe the acting City Manager was tabled at Monday night’s meeting to the Feb. 6 council meeting because there was still some input the council was looking for from the deputy city manager and the city solicitor.
The council did approve hiring the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management to consult and assist with the City Manager search process.
“Prior to that, we, as a City Council will have a discussion about what we would like to see, what type of City Manager that the city will be looking for,” said Precinct 8 Councilor Calvin Brown.
Brown said the search process will also incorporate input from the community, and that there will be more information at the next council meeting about a possible screening committee to help with the selection process.
As for the clerk to the council position, the council voted to reissue the job description for the position as a full-time position of up to 35 hours per week with a flexible schedule.
Brown noted that if the council could not find a suitable person to fill the position full time, there could be some flexibility and ability to hire someone at fewer hours. However, Council President Leo Robinson stated that it is being advertised as a full-time position.
Casino announced his planned retirement for the end of 2022 in May of last year.
At that time, the council established a special search subcommittee for the clerk to the council position. At that time, the clerk was being listed as a 20-hour per week position.